Recently, I’ve been hearing a lot of complaints from Vietnamese nail techs, salon owners, and manufacturers about the current state of the Vietnamese nail industry. I was surprised to hear so many of you complaining about other Vietnamese salons cutting corners, stealing customers, and working so much for so little pay-out. This is apparently “in the nature of their way of doing business” as one anonymous Vietnamese manufacturer told me.

Really? Is this still going on out there, my friends? Quynh Le from Cincinnati says, “I just don’t like the way that some owners open shops not even 100 feet away, then set all their prices super low in high-end areas. I think my prices are so reasonable and I use the best product lines. I have so many problems not with other ethnicities but with other Vietnamese salon owners. It isn’t the right way to do business.”

Phuong Luu in Jersey City, N.J., says, “We need to stop cutting corners and being cheap. Many Vietnamese salons are like that — they care too much about themselves to improve. We need to care about long-term business not just short-term.”

Although we live in a society driven by competition, it doesn’t have to be as negative as this. With new products, techniques, and styles, there’s no reason to cut each other off by bringing everyone’s prices down. Remember that low prices might attract customers once, but quality and service is what will bring clients back. It takes a lot of time and effort, but we must have more respect for each other as salon professionals, and competition must transition to that of one’s talent and ability and not simply by the price of one’s service. We must work together to change the status of the Vietnamese nail industry because, whether you like it or not, each decision you make affects the Vietnamese nail industry as a whole.